Shakespeare and the Trojan War | The Trojan War Shakespeare and the Trojan War Topic Summary I. Introduction For my entire life, I have been fascinated with the theatre arts. I was very involved during high school and still attend plays and musicals as frequently as possible. In my studying the Trojan War this semester, I have been able to make a connection between its story line and how it has influenced play writers in the future. In order to narrow this broad topic down, I decided to choose one author and one of his works to focus on during my research. The topic that I ultimately decided on was Shakespeare’s Trojan War influenced play, Troilus and Cressida. Throughout time, audiences of this play have complained about its ambiguity in its genre and the unfamiliar characteristics that were used that made it so opposite from other Shakespeare works. The popularity of this play is scarce and has the reputation of being very difficult to master in terms of staging. After researching this play, I have drawn the conclusion that this play is quite wonderful but very misunderstood. The majority of Shakespeare’s works consumes the audience with a feeling of love, passion, and makes you desire the impossible. Most of his plays end in tragedy and mainly revolve around two lovers and their relationship.

In Troilus and Cressida, it is the exact opposite. These two lovers are filled with lust more than love. They abandon one another the moment that they realize that their relationship is interfering with society. This play, unlike all of the others, does not focus on the relationship of the two lovers. The main focus is on the Trojan War, the need for power, heroic reputation and social acceptance. II. Methods The methods that I used to complete this assignment were standard forms of research. I began my research by reading Shakespeare’s play Troilus and Cressida. I have read the majority of all his works but had never had the pleasure of reading this one. This was very entertaining for me. After reading the play, I started posting blogs on the wordpress website. Through posting online, my knowledge about the play and how it tied in with the Trojan War began to increase. A lot of the links that I posted on the website ended up becoming some of my main sources for this project. Taking some time off from blogging, I read a few articles about the play that focused on the texture and ambiguity that has cumulated about this work.

Using online sources, articles, books, the play and blogging is how I was able to gain enough research to complete this assignment. • Online Sources a) Review. Educational Theatre Journal. Vol. 24, No. 1. b) The Uniqueness of Troilus and Cressida. JSTOR. Vol. 29, No.1. c) Texture in “Troilus and Cressida”. Educational Theatre Journal. Vol.19, No.3. • Books b) Troilus and Cressida by William Shakespeare, edited by Kenneth Palmer. c) Shakespeare’s History of Troilus and Cressida by William J. Rolfe. III. Conclusion Before taking this course, I had very little knowledge of the Trojan War. The last time that I read the Iliad was in high school, which I am sure you hear that a lot. By conducting the research that I did for this assignment, I feel that I have gained a better sense of not only the story of the Trojan War, but how it has impacted human beings for hundreds of years after it was written. The Trojan War is what helped inspire the giant of play writing himself.

The reflection of the war in Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida may be a foreign work compared to his other writings. A lot of people call it a failure but this is only because people are intimidated by the unfamiliar. This play is a work of genius and one would realize that if they had enough knowledge about the war to understand the play. IV. References Hiken, Arlin J. (Oct. 1967). Texture in “Troilus and Cressida”. Educational Theatre Journal. Vol.19, No.3. . Homer. Iliad, with and English translation by A.T. Murray. Massachusetts: Cambridge, 1999. Print. Jago. David M. (1978). The Uniqueness of Troilus and Cressida. JSTOR. Vol. 29, No.1. . Rolfe, William J. Shakespeare’s History of Troilus and Cressida. New York. Harper & Brothers, 1982. Shakespeare, William. Troilus and Cressida. Edited by Kenneth Palmer. 1982. Stromberg, Joseph R. “Shakespeare, War and Peace”.

Nov., 2002. . “The Archaic Age”. . Wilmeth, Don B. (Mar., 1972). Review. Educational Theatre Journal. Vol. 24, No. 1. . Zott, Lynn M. “Criticism of William Shakespeare’s Plays and Poetry, from the First Published Appraisals to Current Evaluations”. (2003). . Annotated Bibliography Hiken, Arlin J. (Oct. 1967). Texture in “Troilus and Cressida”. Educational Theatre Journal. Vol.19, No.3. . This confusing but enlightening article is an outstanding explanation of why there is so much ambiguity over Shakespeare’s play, Troilus and Cressida. In this article, Hiken explains that the reason for failure in performing this play is due to the difficult level of staging that it calls for. The reason for difficult staging is because of the immense amount of parallelism that we see between the Trojan and Greek characters that are involved. Hiken formulates analogies between the characters that help the reader understand the common theme and how this would be very hard to master on the theatrical stage. Homer.

Iliad, with and English translation by A.T. Murray. Massachusetts: Cambridge, 1999. Print. Though Troilus and Cressida are absent from the Iliad, the foundation of Shakespeare’s work, Troilus and Cressida, comes from this particular piece of literature. Shakespeare studied and used different themes and characters from the Iliad to help create his play. Shakespeare took the players involved in the Iliad and created a very controversial picture of the way of life during the Trojan War. Jago. David M. (1978). The Uniqueness of Troilus and Cressida. JSTOR. Vol. 29, No.1. . In this article, the autor dissects the reasoning for the failure of Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida. He devotes a large majority of the article to comparing the love relationships of Troilus and Cressida to that of Romeo and Juliet. He explores the extreme differences in the two different pairs of lovers and why these relationships are so different. Jago also investigates the question of why Shakespeare did not write this play in the traditional format of all of his other works.

He explains to his readers of why Troilus and Cressida’s relationship was a failure and how it ended up this way due to the society that they lived in; during the Trojan War. Rolfe, William J. Shakespeare’s History of Troilus and Cressida. New York. Harper & Brothers, 1982. William J. Rolfe devoted his life to critiquing the works of Shakespeare. In this book, not only does it contain the play itself, but everything that one might want to know about how it came to be. Rolfe explains the history of the play, when it was written and explains his opinion of Shakespeare’s thought process in creating this play. He also describes in detail each character that is involved in this story. This book was very interesting to read and helpful with my research. Shakespeare, William. Troilus and Cressida. Edited by Kenneth Palmer. 1982. This play begins with Agamemnon, the Greek king, and his men outside of the Trojan walls. The biggest problem that the Greeks are facing is that their number one warrior is refusing to fight and will only speak with Patroclus.

Inside the walls of Troy, the king, his sons and general are all arguing. Troilus is also refusing to fight because he has fallen in love with Cressida and thinks that they are fighting over a silly cause. In this play, there is a web of lovers, abandonment and fighting. Stromberg, Joseph R. “Shakespeare, War and Peace”. Nov., 2002. . In this online article, Stromberg examines several authors and their works including Shakespeare’s “Shakespeare’s Pacifism” to get a better understanding of current writers desire to return writing about the war-like times, such as the Trojan War, and their want and their reader’s want for these semi-repeated works. “The Archaic Age”. . This article summarizes how the Greeks at this time where living in a very dark age. For the first time ever, the different polis’ were having to communicate and work together in order to survive. The Greeks became more educated and skilled during this time because they had begun trade with other cultures that forced them to know literature and how to sculpt. Language and religion also played a huge role in communicating with other poleis.

The better that one knew how to interact with someone of a different city or culture, the more successful and independent they would be. In Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida, he created a parallel between the Trojan and Greek characters that were involved in his play. This play was very difficult to stage due to the fact that it took place in both the Trojan and Greek camps. This source was very useful in helping me achieve a better understanding of the Greek life and how it played a part in Shakespeare’s work. Wilmeth, Don B. (Mar., 1972). Review. Educational Theatre Journal. Vol. 24, No. 1. . In this article, Don B. Wilmeth is conducting a review of Trinity Square Repertory Companies production of Troilus and Cressida. Wilmeth beings his critique by explaining how the director built the set used for the play and what costumes were used. He discusses each character (actor) and exactly what they looked like. Constructive criticism was used to describe production flaws and difficulties that the actors faced with noise control. Wilmeth applauded the creativeness and effort put into the production but still stated that it was a very boring and dull play to watch.

Zott, Lynn M. “Criticism of William Shakespeare’s Plays and Poetry, from the First Published Appraisals to Current Evaluations”. (2003). . This online article is a brief summary of the play itself and a critique of the problems that this particular author has with this work that Shakespeare created. Zott explores the way that Shakespeare treated this work in terms of the Trojan war and the controversy that it created to Elizabethans. The vagueness of the genre is also another critical point that this author examines closely, due to the fact that this play can be interpreted with so many different moods. This review of the Shakespeare’s play, I found to be very accurate and right on cue with all of the other research that I have done for this project. Brandi Beard Abstract Understanding the True Meaning of Troilus and Cressida Shakespeare, as we all know, was a hero of play writing. The majority of his plays involve a similar theme and path; tragedy. People can easily recognize his works by just reading them without awareness of the author. Shakespeare had a very unique trademark to his writing that was noticeable to most of his audiences.

Troilus and Cressida is one of Shakespeare’s works that has been repeatedly questioned and often misunderstood. This play does not follow the traditional characteristics of Shakespeare’s others and has also been dubbed many times as a failure. In David M. Jago’s, The Uniqueness of Troilus and Cressida, Jago explores the differences of this play to that of Romeo and Juliet and the meaning behind Shakespeare’s unrecognizable writing and stage plotting in Troilus and Cressida. Jago describes two main points at the begging of his article that help separate Troilus and Cressida from other works created by Shakespeare: “The Independence of the moral universe created by Shakespeare in each of his plays and the deliberately unsatisfying effect of Troilus and Cressida”. He then takes these two points and performs a compare and contrast explanation between Troilus and Cressida and Romeo and Juliet. Jago points out that viewer’s enjoy Romeo and Juliet’s love story because it creates a feeling of sympathy for impossible eternity. The two lovers are willing to do anything to spend this eternity with one another and refuse to let anything stop them. Troilus and Cressida’s love story is one based off of sexual desire and lust.

There love lives as long as it is parallel with that of society. Another aspect in which this play is so different from other works created by Shakespeare is that Troilus and Cressida love story is not the main plot for this play. Shakespeare focuses more of the Trojan War politics and the driven desire for social acceptance. As you see in this play, Troilus and Cressida both abandon one another as soon as society demands them to do so without thought. The characters in this story are not all relevant to the two lovers and again, the main focus is on the war. In Romeo and Juliet, all of the characters have some sort of relationship with the doomed lovers. “If Troilus and Cressida were given so prominent a role, the ultimate effect of the play would be quite different” (Jago). Shakespeare is purposely avoiding main focus on the two lovers. The point of this play is to reveal the fact that for a man, acceptance of society and honor in war is extremely dominate over sexual desire. This key fact is very important to understanding the behaviors in relationships during the Trojan War. Jago paints a very clear picture in this article of why Shakespeare compiled this play in the manner that he did.

The uniqueness of this work is not to entertain but to inform its audience of what drove people during the Trojan War times. Abstract 2 Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida: A Web of Parallelism It is very well-known in the theatrical world that Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida is one of the most difficult plays to stage. In theatre, directors want the transitions of the plays scenes to go smoothly and to tie into what comes next. This particular Shakespeare work has often been called a failure due to the abrupt scene changes and staging altogether. In Arlin J. Hiken’s, Texture in “Troilus and Cressida, he attempts to explain the reason why this masterful piece of work is so unpopular due to the high difficulty performance level that it takes to properly perform this play. This play takes place in both the Trojan and Greek camps. This is one of the first reasons why staging is problematic. Hiken breaks down every character and every relationship in this play, whether on the Trojan or Greek side, and reveals an immense amount of parallelism that these characters share. The parallelism in this play is genius. Here we have to opposing sides: the Trojans and the Greeks.

They are fighting against one another and are pure enemies. In Shakespeare’s play, he creates this parallelism between opposing characters that exposes a common theme and similarity between them. This play is like a tangled web of different characters on different sides who are actually the same. For instance, Hiken dissects the relationship of Diomedes, Troilus and Cressida. Diomedes and Troilus are both lovers of Cressida and both of these characters have very similar relationships with two other men in the play that state a common ground. Those relationships are that of Diomedes and Aeneas to Troilus and Achilles. Hiken continues on with more examples of how other characters of opposing are webbed in a very tangled parallelism that formulates of very common theme between them. All of these mixed-up but very comparable relationships are the key reason as to why this play is almost next to impossible to master its staging. Research Narrative When the class was first given this assignment, I honestly had no clue what to do my project over. Being a public relations major, I have spent the majority of my college career giving speeches, coordinating mock campaigns and learning how to put together media kits.

This being my last semester in college, having a bit a senioritis, I definitely was not prepared for an assignment such as this. However, I am very grateful that I choose this challenging course because thru this assignment I really learned a lot. Sitting at home one night, I was browsing on Net Flix when Shakespeare’s A Summer Night’s Dream popped up. It was the version with Michelle Pfeiffer and Rupert Everett. It had been years since I had seen this version of the play and decided to watch it. Half-way through the movie, my phone went off telling me that I had received an e-mail. It was from Joel Christensen. After reading the e-mail, I started thinking about this final project, trying to figure out what in the world I was going to talk about. Then it hit me, Shakespeare! I have always loved the theatre arts and have a lot of knowledge about his plays and understanding them. So, why not talk about how theatre has been affected by the Trojan War? After sending you my topic selection, you responded by suggesting that I narrow such a broad topic down a little. (Thank you for that). This is where my online research process began.

I simply googled Shakespeare and the Trojan War, and this is where his play Troilus and Cressida popped up. I thought that I had read all of his plays, but I was wrong. To officially start my journey off, I went to the library and read the play. This is before I knew that there has been a lot of criticism about Troilus and Cressida. I thoroughly enjoyed this play and was surprised to find out later that it is one of Shakespeare’s most dis-liked works. I was able to draw the conclusion that it was different from his other plays, but I definitely did not think that it was bad in anyway. After completely the read, I then decided to start working on my blogging. This is where I found a few of my online sources for this project. Blogging on wordpress was very simple. It was also a fun and different way to compile information and research. Through searching online, trying to find different things to blog about, I was beginning to feel more and more confident about my topic and this assignment as a whole. The two articles that I wrote my abstracts on where also very helpful in understanding why this play has the sour reputation that it does.

One of the biggest complaints about this play is that it is a monster to try and stage. In the first article that I read, The Uniqueness of Troilus and Cressida, I was informed of why the staging is so difficult. The play takes place in both the Trojan and Greek camps, which makes it very difficult to go back in forth with different sets. And, most stages are two small to try and have both camp settings on the same stage. Directors who took on the task of performing this work would normally have to build side stages, which take up audience seating, to fully capture the scenery that is needed. Another downfall that makes Troilus and Cressida hard to stage is that the play takes place outside. In the second article that I read, Texture in “Troilus and Cressida”, I learned of the several parallelisms that were created between the characters in the play. These parallelisms are another reason why this place is very difficult to stage. The staging is not the only thing that has caused people to dub this play as a failure, the two main lovers in this play is another huge complaint.

In this article, they explained this flaw by comparing Troilus and Cressida’s relationship to that of Romeo and Juliet. In Romeo and Juliet, and pretty much all of Shakespeare’s works, there is a powerful love story. Even though this play ends in tragedy, Romeo and Juliet truly loved one another and would do anything possible to be together. If they could not be together, then they would die. That is exactly what happened at the end of this tragic play. In Troilus and Cressida, I felt that their relationship was more full of lust then love. Cressida was basically a prostitute and Troilus abandoned her the minute that he felt their relationship was jeopardizing his place in society. Elizabethans did not take very well to this type of “love” relationship that Shakespeare had created, and therefore was received a terrible reputation from the star. All of the research tools that I used in building this project were extremely helpful. The several different sources that were used provided me with a better understanding of the Trojan War in theatre. The power of this story is so great that people have been writing about it for hundreds of years and will continue to create new stories based off of the Trojan War.

Share this: Troilus and Cressida (Theatre) - TV Tropes Troilus and Cressida You need to login to do this. Get Known if you don't have an account Share WMG A problem play by William Shakespeare , set during The Trojan War — Shakespeare used The Iliad as a reference. It has been variously described as a tragedy, a romance, and a tragicomedy; its oddly opposite but interwoven A and B plots make it difficult to classify. The A plot, which provides the play name, is a romance— Troilus, a brave warrior and prince of Troy, is desperately in love with Cressida. She returns his feelings, but is playing hard to get. Troilus uses Cressida's scatterbrained uncle, Pandarus, as a go-between; as a result, Pandarus spends most of the play singing Troilus' praises (and making bawdy jokes). Eventually, Troilus woos her and they consummate their relationship. However, Cressida's father, who defected to the Greeks, exchanges her for a Trojan soldier, and so the lovers are separated.

Troilus asks her to be faithful, and gives her a love token (sleeve) to remember him by. He can't bear to be apart from her, though, so when everyone gathers for a duel between the two sides (see below), he goes to visit her. He discovers, however, that she has been seduced by Diomedes, a Greek warrior. In an extended scene, he and Ulysses watch secretly as she betrays him. Infuriated, Troilus decides to kill some Greeks, yells at Pandarus, and leaves the old man wondering what he did wrong. The B plot is more serious, and concerns the war, borrowing heavily from Homer . Agamemnon, the Greek general, is upset that Achilles is sulking in his tent and won't fight the Trojans. Ulysses and Nestor concoct a plan to get Achilles to return to battle: instead of using Achilles as their champion in a duel proposed by Hector of Troy, they send out strongman Ajax. This, they hope, will infuriate Achilles into fighting. Ajax boasts and beats up his extremely rude servant, Thersites, who snarks crassly at everyone.

The duel falls through, though it serves to goad Achilles to return to the battlefield in order to fight with Hector himself. The two meet on the battlefield the next day, but Hector drives off the Greek hero. Achilles later gathers his loyal soldiers and ambushes an unarmed Hector. They kill the Trojan prince, an act for which Achilles claims the all of the glory. An odd thing about Troilus and Cressida is that it doesn't end so much as stop. The drama between Troilus and Cressida, which is built up through the entire play, is never resolved; Troilus just storms off stage, and the play ends. Also, in defiance of Shakespeare's other tragedies, Troilus doesn't die at the end. The jarring juxtaposition between the political B plot and the romantic A plot is equally notable. Troilus and Cressida provides examples of: Badass Grandpa : Nestor is old as dirt, but said to be still as capable a soldier as he ever was. Berserk Button : Achilles does not take kindly to Patroclus' death.

Character Exaggeration Character Filibuster : If Ulysses is speaking, there's a good chance it's going to be a two-page speech. Subverted when he's about to launch into another speech, and Cressida cuts him off after two lines of Purple Prose . Composite Character : Other characters mention that Ajax is half Trojan, and that his mother was Priam's sister. In The Iliad , Ajax is simply a Greek warrior, but his half-brother Teucer (who also fights for the Greeks) is the son of Priam's sister who was taken prisoner during an earlier invasion of Troy. Darker and Edgier : Could be considered this for The Iliad . While the original is full to bursting with great Greek heroes doing great deeds, the play is a portrait of two armies mired in decadence, lechery, illness, violence, and corruption, where even young love turns sour and the final image is a syphilitic Pandarus promising to "bequeath you my diseases." Doing In the Wizard : The gods do not appear. Dumb Muscle : Ajax, whose lines tend to come in the form of short, uncomplicated prose exclamations.

He would rather resort to violence than speech. Thersites mocks him mercilessly for it in their first scene. Thersites: Thou sodden-witted lord, though hast no more brain than I have in mine elbows; an asinico may tutor thee. Thou scurvy-valiant ass, thou art here but to thrash Trojans, and thou art bought and sold among those of any wit like a barbarian slave. Get Thee to a Nunnery Good Is Dumb : Noted as one of Hector's character flaws. Honor Before Reason : The reason they ultimately all meet a tragic end is because they refuse to do what is feasible, and instead seek to uphold their honor until death. Hector, notably, is chastised by his brothers for frequently showing mercy to defeated Greeks. He receives none from Achilles and his Myrmidons. Jerkass Has a Point : Thersites may spout a whole lot of incendiary language, but he makes some fair observations about both sides and the war as a whole.

Loved I Not Honor More : Hector, when his wife Andromache begs him not to fight: "Life every man holds dear, but the brave man Holds honor far more precious-dear than life." Love Triangle The Matchmaker : Pandarus tries his best to be one between Troilus and Cressida. Mood Whiplash : The romantic plot between Troilus and Cressida, which is busting with sexual puns, and the serious story about war between the Greeks and Trojans. Non-Action Snarker : Thersites. Pungeonmaster : Pandarus, with sexual puns. Helen and Paris, too, come to think. Questionable Consent : Cressida is a Trojan woman in a Greek war camp. Yeah, she is completely in control of her situation . Revenge : The reason Achilles finally leaves his tent. Roaring Rampage of Revenge : What happens once he does. Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness : Ulysses. In his first speech (which is 62 lines long ), he uses "vizarded," "deracinate," and "oppugnancy." That's fancy even for Shakespeare.

Sexual Extortion : Related to Questionable Consent , Diomedes basically gives Cressida the choice of being his woman or everyone's woman. Shout-Out : To Marlowe Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism : Waaaaay on the cynical end. Arguably Shakespeare's most cynical play. Troilus just giving up, rather than dying heroically, is of course part of this. Still the Leader : Agamemnon is determined to invoke his rank if the troops aren't going to obey him of their own volition, even if he is no longer respected. The Stoic : Ajax, who is parodied by Thersites in this aspect. THEATER REVIEW; Shakespeare Staged in a Sandbox Where Nobody Wants to Play Nice - The New York Times The New York Times Theater |THEATER REVIEW; Shakespeare Staged in a Sandbox Where Nobody Wants to Play Nice Search Continue reading the main story One of Shakespeare's most linguistically sophisticated plays, and also one of his most bitterly satirical, ''Troilus and Cressida'' is a sort of backstage drama, a tale of the bickering and backbiting that fester behind public presentation.

It's a love story set during the seventh year of the Trojan War, but the focus is on folly, not grandeur. The lovers of the title are more selfish than noble, more randy than pure of heart. And as for the military adversaries, the Greek officers are bored and self-involved and basically can't stand one another; the Trojans are war weary; and their royal family (Priam and his sons, including the great warrior Hector, the priapic Paris and the whimsically passionate Troilus) is divided about whether the war is worth perpetuating. All may be fair in love and war, but none of it, in this play, is admirable. There's no real protagonist. The clearest perspective belongs to Thersites, a vulgar, unkempt, invective-spewing slave who serves as a mocking chorus and finds everyone, not without reason, contemptible. And it all takes place during a hiatus in battle, at a time when Troilus and Cressida have a brief, consummating encounter and are then forcibly separated, so very little loving or fighting actually goes on. It is a play in which rhetoric of a particularly convoluted and densely clever stripe is the star.

A new production of it by the Off Broadway company Theater for a New Audience opened yesterday at the American Place Theater. The director is Peter Hall, a British theater icon who, among a long list of achievements, founded the Royal Shakespeare Company and who last October directed John Barton's 10-hour epic, ''Tantalus,'' which also deals with the Trojan War. Continue reading the main story Sir Peter is, by his own confession, dedicated to Shakespeare's language: the disciplined delivery of its poetics. He has said as well that he approaches a production without an overall concept and lets the rehearsal process and the actors determine the show's tone and direction. It is an idealistic approach that expresses utter confidence in the theater's collaborative creative process. But in this case it has generated a sluggish, unilluminating production of a play that begs for the kind of momentum and clarity that a propulsive directorial hand can provide.

Advertisement Continue reading the main story Performed here in the round, on a stage turned into a sandbox, the play opens with its most stirring imagery: two skeletons swathed in rags and propped against each other as if rotting after a beach picnic, and two others in a stark, coital embrace, a chilling depiction of Shakespeare's bile-filled connection between lust and battle. But it is merely an admonitory prologue. The skeletons are swept off by the grimy Thersites (Andrew Weems), and the stage is left clear for the static gatherings and the verbal proclamations and manipulations that hold sway in each of the opposing military camps. In spite of a relentless parade of entrances and exits and a couple of gymnastic fight scenes toward the end, the production is thick-limbed and trudging; it never burrows from under the self-deluding and often overwrought bloviations of characters for whom self-importance knows no bounds.

It is both Shakespeare's genius and Shakespeare's joke that they express themselves with some of the knottiest verbiage in any of his plays: ''Princes,'' begins Agamemnon, addressing his high command in an attempt to rouse their flagging enthusiasm for the war, What grief hath set the jaundice on your cheeks? The ample proposition that hope makes In all designs begun on earth below Fails in the promised largeness. Checks and disasters Grow in the veins of actions highest reared, As knots, by the conflux of meeting sap, Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up Infects the sound pine and diverts his grain Tortive and errant from his course of growth. It's the kind of writing that winks at its own erudition and almost willfully obscures the plot, which can be summarized this way: Troilus and Cressida, mutual admirers from afar, are brought together by Pandarus, Cressida's uncle, a half-Cupid, half-pimp who encourages their sexual union.

None are aware, however, that Cressida's father, Calchas, who has defected to the Greeks, has arranged for his daughter to be given to the Greek officer Diomedes in exchange for a captured Trojan. In the meantime the Greeks are particularly fed up with their indolent and scornful warrior, Achilles, whose sexually diverse predilections seem to lay foremost claim to his loyalty. So the other officers agree to a plan devised by the clever and officious Ulysses, meant to lure Achilles back to battle by lionizing instead an inferior man, Ajax. The Trojans, meanwhile, are clearly irritated that years of bloody torment and deprivation have resulted from the capture of Helen, and the question is on the table: Is Paris's lust for a trollopy beauty really an appropriate symbol of the pride of Ilium, worth defending at all costs? As Hector declares at one point, ''Let Helen go.'' In the end, all weaknesses are indulged and promises broken, naturally to gruesome effect: heartbreak, death, the ruination of Troy, the blackened soul of Greece.

Sir Peter's essentially laissez-faire staging leaves the actors to create the peaks and valleys of drama, but this is an ensemble that remains unbonded and uncohesive, and though most in the large cast cope reasonably with Shakespearean poetics, few manage to act distinctively as well. (The costumes don't help; the Greeks in particular look like some shabby medieval motorcycle gang.) Idris Elba, as Achilles, with an ever-present wine goblet in his hand and a controlling arm often around his doting companion, Patroclus, does have the swagger to convey both his physical prowess and his graceless egomania. And Terence Rigby, as Agamemnon, does a subtle turn as a commander who is sick of his job, leading by spiritless habit. Mr. Weems's Thersites is pugnacious and bravely unpleasant, though he's not the most gleeful or humorous name-caller. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Other performances in major roles, however, are deadening. Philip Goodwin's Ulysses is completely opaque. Tony Church, as Pandarus, works awfully hard to create a sullied charm that never emerges.

And in the title roles, Joey Kern and Tricia Paoluccio both have the looks and the actorly command to be featured on ''Dawson's Creek.'' TROILUS AND CRESSIDA By William Shakespeare; directed by Peter Hall; sets by Douglas Stein; costumes by Martin Pakledinaz; lighting by Scott Zielinski; composer, Herschel Garfein; fight director, B. H. Barry; voice coach, Robert Neff Williams; general manager, Erika Feldman; production stage manager, Alexis Shorter; associate producer, Robert Marx; production manager, Tor Ekeland. Presented by Theater for a New Audience, Jeffrey Horowitz, artistic director; Theodore C. Rogers, chairman; M. Edgar Rosenblum, executive director. At the American Place Theater, 111 West 46th Street, Manhattan.

WITH: David Conrad (Hector), Lorenzo Pisoni (Paris), Luke Kirby (Deiphobus), Joey Kern (Troilus), Tricia Paoluccio (Cressida), Tony Church (Pandarus), Terence Rigby (Agamemnon), Jordan Charney (Menelaus), Idris Elba (Achilles), Earl Hindman (Ajax), Philip Goodwin (Ulysses), Nicholas Kepros (Nestor), Michael Rogers (Diomedes) and Andrew Weems (Thersites). Not All is Fair in Love and War April 13 - June 24, 2007 Acting Sets Overall I guarantee that Shakespeare never imagined a performance like this. With a haunting, tragic melody tinkling over the theater's speaker system, the pale, helmeted spirits of Greece and Troy's fallen sons slowly make their way downstage under billowing, transparent chiffon. Troilus and Cressida ends the same way, with fallen heroes reminding us of the consequences of the actions, and of our inevitable mortality. It is powerful; it put the play in perspective.

However clever Pandarus (Stephen Ouimette) or hilarious Thersites (Ross Lehman) might be, the play is set during year eight of the Trojan war. Jokes and love can only last so long in such times. Troilus and Cressida, which opened on Shakespeare's 443rd birthday and runs through June 24, 2007 at Chicago's Shakespeare Theater, is the Bard's take on Homer's Iliad, as told from the perspective of two young and, yes, star-crossed, lovers in Troy. It’s obvious Artistic Director and theater founder Barbara Gaines is inspired in her portrayal of the characters by Alessandro Baricco's An Iliad, published in 2006 by Knopf. Like Shakespeare, Baricco humanizes the epic battle through intense character focus. Baricco's novel gives a first-person account from every major player in the Trojan War. Having the read the book myself, I'm thrilled Gaines used Baricco's perspective in helping shape and define her own. The most brilliant parts of the play come by means of Troilus (Kevin O'Donnell), Pandarus, and Thersites.

O'Donnel lights up the stage whenever he was on it, and moved seamlessly from lovesick boy to grief-stricken lover to violent warrior to somber hero. Thersites, like most of Shakespeare's comic foils, steals the show, but I never once thought I was watching actor Ross Lehman, only the character himself. I had a hard time reconciling the Cressida of Act 1 with the Cressida of Act 2. For the first half of the play, the actress didn’t thrill me. She seems a little over the top, almost overselling the role. So imagine my surprise when intermission ends and the second act opens to a whole new Cressida. Chaon Cross can sell grief. She completely embraces her character, reaching levels of deep, raw emotion that I've rarely seen onstage. Achilles, played by Bruce A. Young, is also an ineffective character, though for different reasons and without a second act reprieve. I've studied the Trojan War extensively, and I've read a number of takes on Homer's epic. I've formed opinions about his characters, who they are, and what they would do.

Achilles is epic, larger-than-life, and Young's portrayal is almost wussy. Sure, he bellows and swaggers at the appropriate times, but it takes more than the motions to recreate the greatest, most fearsome warrior the world has ever known. Underused is Lacy Coil, who portrays the unheeded psychic Cassandra. The part is small, and Coil is onstage far too infrequently, but every time she runs shrieking into the spotlight she commands the theater. She is equal parts angry, fearful, insane, and tragic, and she blends these traits perfectly into a performance that is effortless and natural, when it could easily have been over-the-top. The 32-member cast could easily have been chaos to maneuver, particularly during the play's final scenes of fierce battle. The movement onstage, however, is nothing short of spectacular. Gaines does a marvelous job with coordinating the actors onto and off the stage so that the audience feels the hectic frenzy of battle without getting lost in the action or wondering whom to watch. The sets are simple, but with such a large cast, more pieces would only clutter the stage they so impressively keep from confusion.

The costumes, similarly, do an excellent job of making obvious who is with what army, with Trojans in brighter, more urban garb, and the Greeks in more ragged, earthy colors (they were living in tents on a beach, after all). Even if you can’t keep track of which minor character is which, at least you can tell which side they are on. This is really is helpful during the battle scenes when characters move on and off stage in a hurry. Final verdict: The play is good but not great; I had delicious meal, but I wasn't left feeling full. Troilus and Cressida | Blunt Objects Theatre Blunt Objects Theatre Posted by Bohrs Hoff on February 15, 2012 · 3 Comments William Shakespeare wrote a play about the Trojan War. Well, that’s just awesome. So why is it never performed that often? Because it's weird, that's why. You know, the ancient pseudo-mythical decade-long conflict that even rivals World War II in pop culture. Even if you never read Homer’s Iliad or Virgil’s Aeneid , you know the general story.

But the details of that conflict have been re-imagined and repeatedly analyzed for centuries, and the literary giant William Shakespeare is among the writers who have expanded on the myth. It’s different from Pericles , which just has an unusual structure that abandons the traditional focus on plot over character. And it’s different from Henry VIII , which is just bad. Troilus and Cressida suffers from a similar problem as Two Noble Kinsmen , where it can’t decide if it is a tragedy or a comedy – even though this play excels at both. The heartbreak and the laughter are of equal power, and it is worth reading simply for the beauty of the language. The difficulty seems to be that, despite the well-known and powerful setting, Shakespeare is truly focusing on the young Trojan lovers Troilus and Cressida instead of what a normal audience is really interested in: the War . Crazy, absurdly pointless war. If Shakespeare kept the war in the background, that would be one thing; like how The Good the Bad and the Ugly is set during the American Civil war even though the military conflict is purely tangential to the plot. But instead, Shakespeare makes some really daring choices about how these characters appear.

Chief among them is the death of Trojan Prince Hector, whom Achilles famously slays in revenge for the death of his “masculine whore”, fellow soldier Patroclus. Well, that’s a major choice already: Achilles and Patroclus are absolutely lovers in Shakespeare’s text, whereas every other classic text in the world is intriguingly ambiguous about it. But what is downright shocking is the brutal manner of Hector’s death, which does not involve noble combat at all but instead has Achilles watch as the Myrmidons beat the Prince to a pulp onstage. Furthermore, the Myrmidons are traditionally considered to be warrior elite alongside Achilles, yet here they are described as “his mangled Myrmidons, That noseless, handless, hack’d and chipp’d” monstrous unit of brutal things, and these are the ones that descend upon the one great hope of Troy. Take THAT, how-I-thought-the-story-was-supposed-to-end! Then we have the other eternal question of the war: was Helen raped or did she go willingly to Troy with Paris? Again, Shakespeare’s choice is fascinating.

She only appears in one scene – though she is often the topic of conversation – and there she seems awkward while Paris and Pandarus are really creepy, repeating weird shit like “Sweet queen, sweet queen! that’s a sweet queen, i’ faith.” And then of course there’s the time Paris admits at the dinner table “Sir, I propose not merely to myself The pleasures such a beauty brings with it; But I would have the soil of her fair rape Wiped off, in honourable keeping her.” Yup. Among the many disturbingly casual behaviors that the Trojans and Greeks have towards this war, there is a discussion at the Trojan royal family’s dinner table where they debate the merits of returning Helen to her rightful husband, Menelaus, or not. At this dinner table, it is decided that glory and honor in combat is better than admitting that Paris did the wrong thing. Yup. Kinda like Ben Roethlisberger Yet, despite the fact that this “seven years’ siege” continues with a stalemate, daily combat becoming almost like a friendly sport with an audience, the Greeks do not have much respect for Helen or her Greek husband.

Diomedes, the man who winds up as Cressida’s lover, compares Helen’s two suitors this way: “He, like a puling cuckold, would drink up The lees and dregs of a flat tamed piece; You, like a lecher, out of whorish loins Are pleased to breed out your inheritors: Both merits poised, each weighs nor less nor more; But he as he, the heavier for a whore.” Not only is Shakespeare attacking the idea of heroism in this play, but he is also attacking the idea of love. The love story that actually frames these episodes of the Trojan war ends in betrayal, but not any sort of cathartic death. He is presenting the audience with a social disconnect between the absurdity of war and why it is allegedly fought. Oh, and I should also mention that the gods are entirely spliced out of the story as well. On top of all these cynical dramatic moments is one of my favorite characters in all of Shakespeare: Thersites, a crazy Greek bastard who’s like Falstaff and Apemantus rolled into one.

Actually, yes, I’m going to share some of my favorite lines in the play from this clown: “I am a bastard too; I love bastards,” spoken to a rival on the battlefield, “Ajax, who wears his wit in his belly and his guts in his head,” describing his former master, and my personal favorite insult: “you whoreson indistinguishable cur.” He pretty much just runs around the place throwing insults and laughing maniacally while Ajax beats the crap out of him. And thereby secretly making him a role model... But, as I said, the story at the center of this play is a shattered love story. And since it’s Valentine’s Day, and “Lechery, lechery; still, wars and lechery; nothing else holds fashion,” let’s talk about that love story for a hot minute. Troilus is a Prince, the youngest son of King Priam, but he falls in love with Cressida, whose father has defected to the Greeks. Randomly, the politicians organize a prisoner swap and she is brought to the Greeks to be with her father.

Troilus, who was chief among the warhawks in Troy, is pretty sucky at combat, and is unable to defeat the Greek Diomedes who now holds the girl’s attention. The same day, Hector is killed, and Troilus exhorts: “No space of earth shall sunder our two hates: I’ll haunt thee like a wicked conscience still, That mouldeth goblins swift as frenzy’s thoughts. Strike a free march to Troy! with comfort go: Hope of revenge shall hide our inward woe.” Cressida’s creepy uncle, who arranged for the kids to be together, laments his poor match in the final speech of the play. Again, the weight of the play is off, and the heartbreak of Troilus is not as momentous as the heartbreak of the city over Hector. The end feels sudden and incomplete… but then again that is exactly how Troilus must feel. Not that things traditionally turn out well for his character anyways So I rephrase my original question: SHOULD this play be performed more often? In my opinion, it should only be done if the artists are willing to play against audience expectation and really give it the focus that Shakespeare intended: the young lovers.

Granted, that is hard to do (even I didn’t focus on them during this entry), but that is the only way to go if it is going to be a self-sufficient production. They are an interesting pair, with Troilus as “skilless as unpractised infancy” in all things, including both love and war, and then Cressida is only just discovering the power that she can have over men. There are plenty of plays set during the Trojan War, this is the one that you can only do if you are willing to focus on these lovers set against a momentously well known tragedy. Like the Titanic, for example. So those are some of my thoughts for this week. There is so much more that could be discussed, and feel free to throw stuff into the comments section if you want, but it seemed like a good anti-Valentine’s Day play to write on. Only two more plays from Shakespeare and then I start my further exploration of his contemporaries.

Until then, here’s a great quote on the topic of painful love: “when my heart, As wedged with a sigh, would rive in twain, Lest Hector or my father should perceive me, I have, as when the sun doth light a storm, Buried this sigh in wrinkle of a smile.” Also, I realized that I referenced a disproportionate number of Brad Pitt movies for some reason... huh. Troilus and Cressida by William Shakespeare · OverDrive: eBooks, audiobooks and videos for libraries Drama Fiction For Troilus and Cressida, set during the Trojan War, Shakespeare turned to the Greek poet Homer, whose epic poems the Iliad and the Odyssey treat the war and its aftermath, and to Geoffrey Chaucer, author of The Canterbury Tales and the great romance of the war, Troilus and Criseyde.

The authoritative edition of Troilus and Cressida from The Folger Shakespeare Library, the trusted and widely used Shakespeare series for students and general readers, includes: -The exact text of the printed book for easy cross-reference -Hundreds of hypertext links for instant navigation -Freshly edited text based on the best early printed version of the play -Full explanatory notes conveniently placed on pages facing the text of the play -Scene-by-scene plot summaries -A key to the play's famous lines and phrases -An introduction to reading Shakespeare's language -An essay by a leading Shakespeare scholar providing a modern perspective on the play -Fresh images from the Folger Shakespeare Library's vast holdings of rare books -An annotated guide to further reading Essay by Jonathan Gil Harris The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC, is home to the world's largest collection of Shakespeare's printed works, and a magnet for Shakespeare scholars from around the globe. In addition to exhibitions open to the public throughout the year, the Folger offers a full calendar of performances and programs. For more information, visit Folger.edu.

Shakespeare comes alive in Staib Park - Theater - NorthJersey.com © 2017 North Jersey Media Group July 24, 2009 Shakespeare comes alive in Staib Park By Howard Prosnitz STAFF WRITER | Hackensack Chronicle "Troilus and Cressida" is one of Shakespeare's lesser known plays. Set in the Greek and the Trojan camps during the Trojan War, it is generally categorized, along with "Measure for Measure" and "All's Well That Ends Well," as one of Shakespeare's problem comedies dealing with themes of sexual conflict. Lee Goffin Bonenfant and Jennifer Mauerhofer, members of the Hudson Shakespeare Company, perform a scene from "Troilus and Cressida" in Staib Park. On July 15, some 40 persons sat under the stars in folding chairs, on blankets or on grass in Staib Park for a free performance of "Troilus and Cressida" presented by the Hudson Shakespeare Company and sponsored by the City of Hackensack's Recreation Department. The performance was part of Hackensack's annual summer outdoor Shakespeare festival. On Aug.

5 and 12, the Hudson Company will present "The Merry Wives of Windsor" in Staib Park. A professional group of working actors from New York and New Jersey, the Hudson Shakespeare Company has been the resident theater company at Hackensack's Cultural Arts Center at 39 Broadway for the past eight years. In addition to Shakespeare, the company has performed modern plays such as "Dracula," "Waiting for Godot" and a George Gershwin review at the 117-seat theater, once a branch of the Johnson Public Library. Although in past years the Shakespeare festival rotated among the city's parks, Staib Park on North Summit Avenue has become its home. "The actors loved Memorial Park but between the bus traffic and the frequent noise of trains, performances became difficult," said company director John Ciccarelli. When trains would pass with their horns blasting, actors were forced to stop in the middle of their lines and wait. The company performs Shakespeare's plays as they were performed in Shakespeare's own time with actors in costume but with minimal scenery. "Most people know about the Globe Theater, but a lot of the plays Shakespeare wrote were written for mobile theaters. They were written to be adaptable to various venues," Ciccarelli explained.

"Troilus and Cressida" was chosen for the festival because, with a cast of almost 30 and an abundance of action and sword play, it offers opportunities to the actors and the appeal of spectacle to the audience. "Each year we try to produce different titles that people haven't seen before," Ciccarelli, said. Several of the male roles were taken by female performers, an innovation frequently found in New York theater today as a result of deliberate non-traditional casting and of generally having more women auditioning than men, said Ciccarelli. The play's complicated action centers on the love of the Trojan warrior Troilus for Cressida, the daughter of Calchas, a Trojan renegade to the Greek side. Troilus woos Cressida through her uncle Pandorus. Cressida feigns indifference, but eventually responds. But Calchas arranges for Cressida to be brought to the Greek camp in exchange for a Trojan prisoner. Troilus and Cressida vow eternal love, but no sooner does Cressida arrive among the Greeks than she begins flirting with the warriors and quickly becomes unfaithful to Troilus.

After Troilus sneaks into the camp and overhears Cressida declare her love to a Greek, he returns heartbroken to Troy and is killed in battle soon after. The sordid love story is set against the background of the siege of Troy and familiar Greek and Trojan heroes, including Achilles, Ulysses and Ajax, are among the characters. Hackensack recreation supervisor Gregory Liosi noted the cultural arts center will be celebrating its 10th anniversary in October. Next summer, the Hudson Shakespeare Company will help celebrate with a production at Staib Park of either "Hamlet" or "Henry V." "We are going all out with sets, sounds and lighting. We are planning the biggest production so far," Liosi said. E-mail: prosnitz@northjersey.com

Question: Which Shakespeare play is set during the Trojan War?
Answer: Troilus and Cressida